Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Excerpted from "The Cultivation of The Native Grape, and Manufacture of American Wines", by George Husmann, 1866.

These should be made of well-seasoned white oak staves, and can, of
course, be of various sizes to meet the wants of the vintner. The best
and most convenient size for cellar use I have found to be about 500
gallons. These are sufficiently large to develop the wine fully, and yet
can be filled quick enough to not interrupt fermentation. Of course,
the vintner must have some of all sizes, even down to the five-gallon
keg; but for keeping wine, a cask of 500 gallons takes less room
comparatively, and the wine will attain a higher degree of perfection
than in smaller casks. The staves to make such a cask should be about 5
feet long, and 1½ to 2 inches thick, and be the very best wood to be
had.

The cask will, when ready, be about as high as it is long, should
be carefully worked and planed inside, to facilitate washing and have a
so-called door on one end, 12 inches wide and 18 inches high, which is
fastened by means of an iron bolt and screw, and a strong bar of wood.
This is to facilitate cleaning; when a cask is empty, the door is taken
out, and a man slips into the cask with a broom and brush, and carefully
washes off all remnants of lees, etc., which, as the lees of the wine
are very slimy and tenacious, cannot be removed by merely pouring in
water and shaking it about. It is also much more convenient to let these
large casks remain in their places, than to move them about. The casks
are bound with strong iron hoops.

To prepare the new casks, and also the vats, etc., for the reception of
the must, they should be either filled with pure water, and allowed to
soak for several days, to draw out the tannin; then emptied, scalded
with hot water, and afterwards steamed with, say two or three gallons of
boiling wine; or they can be made "wine-green," by putting in about
half a bushel of unslaked lime, and pouring in about the same quantity
of hot water. After the lime has fallen apart, add about two quarts of
water to each pound of lime, put in the bung, and turn the cask about;
leaving it lie sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other, so that
the lime will come in contact with every part of the cask. Then pour out
the lime-water; wash once or twice with warm water, and rinse with a
decoction of vine leaves, or with warm wine. Then rinse once more with
cold water, and it will be fully prepared to receive the must. This is
also to be observed with old casks, which have become, by neglect or
otherwise, mouldy, or have a peculiar tang.

The casks are then filled with the must; either completely, if it is intended that the must should ferment
above, as it is called, or
under, when the cask is not completely filled, so that the husks,
which the must will throw up, will remain in the cask. Both methods have
their advantages, but I prefer the former, with a very simple
contrivance, to exclude the air, and also prevent waste. This is a
siphon or tin tube, bent in the form of a double elbow, of which one end
fits tightly in the bung hole, and the other empties into a dish of
water, to be set on one end of the cask, through which the gas escapes.